Atlantic.Net, a one-time VAR that morphed into a VPS hosting and cloud service provider, opened two new data centers to expand its North American capabilities.

The facilities, one in Dallas and another in Toronto, represent the company’s first international presence and expand IaaS and integrated colocation services to Canadian and U.S. customers looking for domestic service with round-the-clock support.

Atlantic.Net’s experience as a reseller informed how it built its cloud, said Marty Puranik, the company’s founder and CEO.

’It’s built from the perspective of VARs. We make it easy to migrate workloads to the cloud without taking a lot of certification courses or training to use the product,’ Puranik told CRN.

Atlantic.Net was founded in the mid-90s as a seller of PCs and components and also offered some system integration work. The company soon transitioned to being a dial-up ISP before again morphing into a colocation provider that worked with VARs and system integrators. It launched its cloud computing services in 2010.

The company currently operates a data center in Orlando, Fla., from which it maintains a strong presence in the Southeast region of the United States and services South American customers.

TaylorWorks, a Florida-based solution provider, has had a relationship with Atlantic.Net for a decade that started as a colocation customer at their data center.

’TaylorWorks has been in business more than 15 years, so we have been able to adapt to changing technology demands working with Atlantic.Net, which itself has adapted as the business climate has changed,’ Tim Taylor, the company’s president, told CRN.

’Atlantic.Net has consistently molded their products to make it easier for me to sell and retain customers. Atlantic.Net's mantra is to be flexible which helps us grow as a business. We can get flexibility and reliability using their products,’ Taylor said, adding, ’one of the things we like about Atlantic.Net is they offer all the services of some of the national providers, but we have a real relationship with the people we work with.’

The new data centers are important for reducing latency to customers across North America, Puranik said, adding the international presence in Canada is useful for some customers with regulatory concerns.

Atlantic.Net offers customers the choice between virtual Windows or Linux machines, as well as additional services like integrated backup, free DNS and DNS management.

’It’s a one-stop solution for everything you need for servers,’ Puranik said.

The company also runs orchestration software it developed internally based on its experience as a VAR.

The company’s cloud handles Windows licensing automatically so as to boot quickly, with no additional software updates or licensing keys required from the user. It meters billing to the second and is planning an expansion of the current server offering to include platform features like databases, analytics and server monitoring, Puranik said.